Your question about salaries is a reasonable one. As far as I can gather, no professional programs demand that graduates take a vow of poverty! Of course, the mental health professions do not pay as well as some, but you know that.In the US most art therapists work under another license( Social Work, Marital and Family Terapist,Psychologist,etc) and each of these disciplines have a pay scale. These pay scales vary from state to state and city to city and agency to agency. It is important to know what places are paying when you apply for a position, in order to be able to neogiate a fair wage.

I think that therapists as a breed tend to assume that not only should we not expect to make money, but that it is somehow profane or dishonorable to want to. I think that this attitude, while admirable, weakens the profession and keeps many good people from entering it. If more therapists advocate and educate, salaries will rise. I myself have no expectation of "getting rich" however I expect to make a respectable professinal salary ( and support my family).